Senate Banking Committee finalizes updated market structure bill draft
Lawmakers are expected to consider the new version at the end of September
Maxim Elramsisy/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks
The Senate Banking Committee on Friday afternoon finalized an updated version of its market structure bill, and it includes a key provision that industry members have been pushing.
The latest version of the Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2025, which comes in at 182 pages, includes a section titled “protecting software developers and software innovation,” according to a copy of the draft reviewed by Blockworks.
It’s a section that is notably missing from the House’s market structure bill, the CLARITY Act.
Lawmakers are expected to consider the new version at the end of September, Blockworks reported last week.
The Senate’s new draft seeks to exclude certain actors from securities laws and disclosure requirements. It states that validators are exempt from anti-money laundering and anti-fraud compliance requirements.
The new version also stipulates that offering, selling or transferring an NFT does not constitute a securities offering or sale of an investment contract, something the House’s bill also did not include.
Friday’s discussion draft expands significantly on the 35-page draft Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) — along with Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) — introduced in July. While the first draft focused on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s role in overseeing digital assets, the updated text includes provisions for how the agency should work with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Similar to the CLARITY Act, the new version requires the SEC and CFTC to issue joint rules defining and regulating digital commodities.
Lawmakers are now tasked with turning the two pieces of legislation into one. Lummis, earlier this month at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, said she hopes to have a crypto market structure bill on President Donald Trump’s desk by Thanksgiving.
The CLARITY Act passed the House in a 294-134 vote. 78 Democrats voted in favor of the measure.
The updated draft comes after the SEC and the CFTC released two joint statements on crypto this week.
In a joint statement released Friday, SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham kicked off what the two are calling “a new beginning” for their agencies.
“It is a new day at the SEC and the CFTC, and today we reaffirm the need to ensure regulation does not stand in the way of progress,” Atkins and Pham wrote. “By working in lockstep, our two agencies can harness our nation’s unique regulatory structure into a source of strength for market participants, investors, and all Americans.”
Pham and Atkins’ Friday comments come after the SEC and CFTC staff on Tuesday released a joint statement clarifying rules around certain crypto trading.
Exchanges registered with either the SEC or the CFTC are not prohibited from facilitating trading of certain spot commodity products, staff wrote. These include “leveraged, margined, or financed spot retail commodity transactions on digital assets,” per the statement.
Updated September 5, 2025 at 5:17 pm: Added further context.
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